Note: This article includes originally published Mars weather data and links to the current weather data at the bottom of this article. Updated 3/23/2014

Accurate Weather Records Aren't Rocket Science; But Sloppy, Inaccurate Reports Hurt REMS & Ashima Research Credibility. Ashima Research and the REMS Team finally cease bogus wind reports and day length reports in May, 2013. In late June 2013 the REMS Team radically altered its previously published data, providing air and ground temperartures and even data for when Mars was in conjunction and no data was available.

On May 11, 2013 Ashima research caved in to agree with our daylightcalculations, and apparently with our demand that wind be listed as n/a rather than 2 m/s from the east. All their daylight calculations were revised to be with a minute or two of our math.

Unfortunately the public is likely to be so impressed by the landing itself, and by the geology done to date, that it will remain unaware of exactly what shanegans have gone on with the meteorology on board unless we can succeed in landing a television documentary about it.

On the Tables 1, 2, and 3 below, cells colored in lavender have obvious errors or lacking information. There was never any variation in the wind recorded from the 2 m/s from the East, and it thus it is assumed that damage to Wind Boom 1 was fatal to obtaining correct winds. All reports of Martian sunrise and sunset times by Ashima were wrong (until May 11 as noted above). Our calculations of the correct daylight hours (within one to two tenths of a minute) are shown in yellow on Tables 2 and 3. The lack of relative humidity may suggest that there was also damage to wind boom 2 where the humidity sensor was located. A more detailed description of MSL weather reporting problems is HERE. After Table 1 we dropped the column on relative humidity and replaced it with two columns that show erroneous daylight hours given by Ashima, and our corrections for them. With the exception of Sol 56 (October 2, 2012) Ashima published all sunrise times as 6 am and all sunset times as 5 pm. For their sole exception on Sol 56 they indicated sunrise at 5:31 am and sunset at 5:09 pm. We have a page about how to correctly derive the times HERE.

The primary source of Pressure, Temperature, Relative Humidity and Wind Data was from a site maintained by the Centro de Astrobiologia (and the REMS Team) which is primarily responsible to NASA/JPL for this data at http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/marsweather.html. Ashima, who worked with the REMS Team, was the secondary source.

The tables below also reveal frequent confusion from the REMS Team and Ashima about what Sol a day is, and what the Ls is. The correct location of Mars in its orbit (Ls) is taken from an on-line Mars calendar at http://www-mars.lmd.jussieu.fr/mars/time/martian_time.html. A Julian date calculator is at http://www.onlineconversion.com/julian_date.htm. For November 25, 2012 Mars was at Ls 213.1, but Ashima incorrectly reported the Ls as 221. Often they forget to enter the calendar with the date on Mars being reported, and instead (incorrectly chose the current date - resulting in the higher Ls position). On November 12 both REMS and, strangely enough, Ashima first, went from a report of November 9, 2012 as Sol 92 to a report of November 10, 2012 as Sol 89. The data for the new Sol 89 did not match anything from the old Sol 89, which was on November 5, 2012. Almost nonstop chaos appeared to reign at both sites. In part as a result of sloppy reporting of results by Ashima Research, we reviewed a paper by them on the Ashima/MIT Mars GCM to see if there was a wider pattern of mistakes being made by their firm with regard to Mars. Our review is HERE.

A graph of pressures reported by the REMS Team is posted HERE for Ls 158.8 on August 22, 2012 to Ls 199.8 on November 3, 2012.Note: A regional dust storm was spotted growing southwest of the MSL on November 18, 2012 (see the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Report and photo). While there were reports on-line that for a regional dust storm (not yet at MSL), "A drop in air pressure and small rise in the overnight low temperature have been recorded by its Spanish-built Rover Environmental Monitoring Station," as you can see below for the period between November 18 and November 25, where pressures are not missing, the pressures continued to rise from 833.41 Pa to 847 Pa. Only the temperature statement just given correlates with their data. The dust storm did not go global. Note: Many of the errors written about above were admitted to by Ashima Research is their statement HERE.

The first report posted was from Ashima, but it cited REMS. This is the first time that Ashima posted a report BEFORE REMS, indicating that they don't rely on REMS reports for their data. What Ashima posted is in blue. What is in black was posted later by REMS.

11/21/2012

No report

210.6

12 hr9.8 min

11 hr

11/22/2012

No report

211.2

12 hr9.9 min

11 hr

11/23/2012

No report

211.8

12 hr10.1 min

11 hr

11/24/2012

No report

212.4

12 hr10.2 min

11 hr

11/25/2012

108

5

-65

847

E 2 m/s

213.1

12 hr10.5 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Both Ashima and REMS report Sol 108 as November 25, November 25 should be Sol 109. Ashima reports this Sol at Ls 221. In reality November 24 is Sol 108 at Ls 212.4 and November 25 is Sol 109 at Ls 213.1. There is no pressure or other data reported out for the previous 4 days when a regional dust storm was southwest of MSL.

11/26/2012

No report

109

213.7

12 hr10.6 min

11 hr

11/27/2012

No report

110

214.3

12 hr10.7 min

11 hr

11/28/2012

No report

111

214.9

12 hr10.9 min

11 hr

11/29/2012

111

5

-66

850

E 2 m/s

215.5

12 hr 11.1 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima reports this Sol at Ls 216 after having Sol Ls 108 as Ls 221.

11/30/2012

112

3

-66

852

E 2 m/s

216.1

12 hr11.2 min

11 hr

6:00AM

5:00 PM

12/1/2012

113

3

-66.11

857

E 2 m/s

216.7

12 hr11.3 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/2/2012

114

3

-69

858

E 2 m/s

217.4

12 hr11.3 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/2/2012

115

1.3

-67

857.26

E 2 m/s

218

12 hr11.5 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Both Ashima and REMS report Sol 114 and 115 as December 2. For Dec 2 the Ls is 217.4, for Dec. 3 the Ls is 218 as shown on this line.

12/3/2012

116

5

-67

857

E 2 m/s

218

12 hr11.7 min

1

1 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/4/2012

117

3.45

-66.37

862

E 2 m/s

218.6

12 hr 11.8 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/5/2012

118

4.53

-65.19

864

E 2 m/s

219.2

12 hr12 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/6/2012

119

3.12

-66.22

866.3

E 2 m/s

219.8

12 hr12.2 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima lists Ls as 221.

12/7/2012

120

5.91

-66.67

867.5

E 2 m/s

220.5

12 hr12.3 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/8/2012

121

1.31

-64.1

865.4

E 2 m/s

221.1

12 hr12.5 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima lists Ls as 222

12/9/2012

No report

122

E 2 m/s

221.7

12 hr12.6 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/10/2012

123

2.1

-65.7

875.96

E 2 m/s

222.3

12 hr12.7 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/11/2012

124

5.4

-65.5

876.84

E 2 m/s

222.9

12 hr12.9 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/12/2012

125

3.4

-63.8

875.25

E 2 m/s

223.6

12 hr13 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima lists Ls as 225

12/13/2012

126

-5

-67

880

E 2 m/s

224.2

12 hr13.2 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima lists Ls as 224

12/14/2012

127

2

-67

884

E 2 m/s

224.8

12 hr13.3 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima lists Ls as 225

12/15/2012

128

-4

-67

884

E 2 m/s

225.4

12 hr13.5 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

Ashima lists Ls as 225

12/16/2012

129

-4

-66

894

E 2 m/s

226.1

12 hr13.6 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

This was listed as the last unzipped Ashima report. It still erroneously shows sunrise at 6 AM and sunset at 5 PM. Later the unzip requirement was dropped.

12/17/2012

130

-6

-66

889

E 2 m/s

226.7

12 hr13.7 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/18/2012

131

-7

-66

888

E 2 m/s

227.3

12 hr13.9 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/19/2012

132

-6.8

-65.4

892.84

E 2 m/s

227.9

12 hr14 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/20/2012

133

0.6

-65.4

891.21

E 2 m/s

228.6

12 hr14.2 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/21/2012

134

-0.62

-66.79

893.99

E 2 m/s

229.2

12 hr14.3 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/22/2012

135

-4.66

-64.88

894.34

E 2 m/s

229.8

12 hr14.5 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/23/2012

No report

136

230.4

12 hr 14.6 min

12/24/2012

No report

137

231.1

12 hr 14.8 min

12/25/2012

No report

138

231.7

12 hr 14.9 min

12/26/2012

No report

139

232.3

12 hr 15 min

12/27/2012 to 12/30/2012

No report

on Vacation?

140 to 143

233

12 hr 15.2 min

12/31/2012

144

-3

-64

907

E 2 m/s

235.5

12 hr15.6 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

12/1/2012

DATE ERROR

144

-1

-65

851

E 2 m/s

236?

12 hr15.8 min

11 hr

6:00 AM

5:00 PM

The two Sol 144 reports make no sense unless the 851 hPa is a minimum rather than average pressure.